Spring Snow

Upon the Sea of Glass, glowing with the perfection of spiritual union and the radiance of true wisdom, rests the throne of God. A scent of inimitable purity, crystalline grace, and limitless light. I'm absolutely in love with this scent. I remember reading reviews of R'lyeh that said it was "evil grapefruit." Well, Sea of Glass must be heavenly grapefruit. It's light, sweet, slightly tart and very refreshing I imagine myself on a veranda surrounded by trees with small white blossoms, eating a heavenly grapefruit and looking out over the sea of glass (which is calm and beautiful, NOT mingled with fire) when I wear this one. This is going to be my calming scent, as it is so much more peaceful than the in-your-face violets of Water of Notre Dame. I could wear it every day, and I might just do that while the imp lasts. I may need a bottle of this one. ETA: added description

In the imp, this starts out as pure melted butter. On skin, it is toasted toffee cake. As it morphs, the pineapple becomes more prominant, so it turns into toasted toffee pineapple upside down cake. Delicious, rich and foody. According to fiance, it smells like Golden Grahams. I guess that's good?

I didn't think I'd like this scent at all. I tried out my frimp this morning for the first time and surprised myself by loving it right away. It smells exactly like those honeydew flavored caramel milk candies you can get at the Japanese grocery store from my home town when it's wet, and it was really fun wandering around smelling like candy. On the drydown, the candy-sweetness gets more subdued, but it doesn't go away. The moss and florals come out and ground the scent a bit more, creating a luscious fruity mix rather than straight out fruit candy. I am going to love this one for summer, but I feel like if I wear it outside, bees will chase me!

I keep changing my mind with this one... I catch a whiff and love it, and catch another whiff and think "hmm not so much." I put this on today because I definitely need some positive personal energy to keep things up. The scent has so far stayed very true through wet and dry stages. It smells a lot like walking through a big outdoor nursery, with fresh green plants, flowers, fruits, herbs, and earth mixing together. Sometimes it is very sharp and earthy, sometimes this very rich creamy quality rises up and overpowers everything. Although I feel iffy on the smell, the effect is immediate and very positive. It's much better than a cup of coffee, and I bet it could duke it out with Moxie in terms of alert and concentration-inducing-ness (is that even a word?). This is going to be a keeper, great to wear when I need a jolt, and probably good to put on objects when I need to settle down and concentrate on doing something, but keep wanting to get up and wander around.

My favorite part of The Raven is when I first put it on. It smells like a fresh, green field of violets. Lovely! But the sandalwood and musk slowly take over, and while the violet sweetness never fades, the sandalwood and musk turn it into a more sickly-sweet scent. It's not bad per say, but it's not my favorite. I'll keep my imp just for the wet stage, though.

It's so nice to wear this blend in early spring, because I feel like I smell of the beautiful new flower buds in the trees, floating in a beautiful pool. I really like how it's a floral, but the floral part does not overwhelm the light, soft sweetness. I don't think it smells like Amsterdam, per say, as the canals get a bit 'yerk' in the late summer (when I stayed there) and the coffeeshops alone put out a stench that will forever eclipse other remembered smells of the city... but as a scent of the Netherlands' countryside, I think it's spot on. Fiance loves it too.

With Kyoto, I get a very soft, mellow fruity floral. The cherry is the strongest note, followed by the sandalwood, and I don't get any anise at all. The weirdest part is that while my left wrist smells like a very sophisticated, well blended and subtle fruit-floral, the right wrist smells like pencil shavings. Maybe I got an imp of Schitzo-Kyoto by accident.

I dragged my old imp of this out to celebrate the first day of spring, and I'm glad I did. My skin seems to amp up the cucumber, which is very nice in my opinion. Basically it smells like a cucumber wearing a sweet pea garland going swimming in a lake under warm sunshine, with a faint tang of aloe in the background (maybe the cucumber is wearing sunblock?). It's light and tends to fade, but I really enjoy it for as long as it stays on my skin.

Really ridiculous, insanely inappropriate, and staggeringly silly! Cranky groundhog musk sweetened up by chocolate-covered black cherries, cardamom, French vanilla, and caramel. I think I'm really allergic to something in this scent because my wrists and elbows are red and insanely itchy after an application... so sensative skin lasses, be warned! My fiance loves it, but I'm kind of "meh" on it... it smells nice and foody on, but the itching cometh, and it fades out really quickly to nondescript powdery meh. I'll stick to underbed, I think.

Key lime pie with a cookie crust! I really like how the sour citrus offsets the sweet in this blend, making it a less cloying foody scent. The lime is a standout. Lovely and yummy!

Mmm... I am only getting spices from this, no flowers at all. And I like it that way, it reminds me a bit of Bengal without the cinnamon, and consequently without the huge red welts I get on my neck when I wear that one. This is soft and spicy and infinitely wearable, though I probably won't splurge on a bottle. I'll treasure my decant for as long as I have it!

When I got this blend as a frimp, I almost decided to put it in the swap pile without trying it, because it seemed so similar to Queen of Sheba, which I hated. But I tried it, and I'm glad I did. On me this blend is absolutely perfect, with none of the notes overpowering the others. They all meld into this wonderful, exotic miasma of sexy. The rose and almond are a great mix with the orange keeping things from getting sickly sweet, and the spices are very grounding. Kind of a grown up Alice in a belly dancing costume. Sultan (well, fiance anyway) here I come!

Ahhhhhhhhh.... Isaac is SO sexy for me. But then again, I am not the one wearing it. The minute my fiance saw the scent description, he went nuts. He's a bourbon man, so he of course had to have it. Now it's his favorite scent to wear, and my favorite scent to smell on him. I like it best when it has had a work day to mellow on his skin. It becomes a very spicy, kind of boozy, and vaguely sleezy scent with a lot of charm. I just adore it!

It's a very light, very herbal sweet green tea. I'm not picking up much citrus, but there is a waft of sweet honey that rounds out the grass and herb part of the sent. Not too sweet, though... it will be great for springtime, although be warned, it is very faint. ETA: You know, I had to edit this review because the more I wear the blend, the more I love it. It's very complex and morphy, but after getting used to its strange tea/herbal/orange/sweet combo, I have grown to adore it. I'm very glad I bought a bottle.

I agree with Obatala, and suggest Elegba, it's more of a dark, smoky coconut that makes me think of a tropical beach.

One of my favorite frimps that I got in my latest order! This scent has a nice "cool, green" vibe to it, under the soft white florals. It is nice to wear on this hot day, and not overwhelming in the slightest. I love how it softly wafts up, rather than a lot of the "cooler" scents which may tend to smack you in the nose. It makes me think of the first rain of spring on the grass. Very fresh, very clean, very watery-green.

I vote for Eat Me too. I tried it just the other day, and I was surprised at how the cake-in-the-bottle scent melded into a very smooth Snake-Oil-esque vanilla without the patchouli. Hyphen hyphen!

yum yum YUM! Litha, where have you been all my life? In the bottle: It's a bottle of mead. Are you sure I can't drink this? On the skin: The mead stays strong, but the honeysuckle and green woods start to come out, making the scent very fresh and complex. Drydown: The honey is the part that really lasts, it stays strong and sweet even after the rest of the notes have faded down. Verdict: I LOVE IT. Definitely a top 10... maybe even a top 5. It's lovely, sunny, and perfect for warm weather.

Mmmm what a delicious, well rounded scent! I was expecting all lavender, but the lotus gives Paris a delectible fruity note that makes it very mellow and pleasing. What a great scent to wear on a hot sticky day such as this one!

This is one of the sharpest scents I have tried, but it actually works. I get a layer of very fresh, tart lime over a layer of cool, green mint. It's a very unusual scent combo, and smells, in a way, like Windex... but in a GOOD way, if that makes sense. Like something you'd pay through the nose to get to clean your house with, because it smells so fantastic. It's great for warm summer days when you want to feel cool and fresh.

The lotus makes the beginning stages very bubblegummy. As it dries, the lime comes out and tarts it up a bit. I'm enjoying wearing such a floral scent, though I'm not sure how often I'll wear it. The jasmine/lotus/fruit combo reminds me of the lovely Mi-Go, which I have a bottle of... I'll have to ponder, but I may pass this one on for others to try.

A very strong, powdery violet. Though this definitely has an aquatic element to it, I get less of a sense of water than I do with other aquatic blends like Amsterdam. This is more of a 19th century ladies' room with violet scented powder on the vanity table, overlooking the garden where there is a pond, and fresh violets waving in the breeze. I like it a lot, despite the powderness. It really is a calming scent, and something that will be good on days where I'm too hyped up to center myself and get to work. It is very powerful, and a small amount will give a good throw for a long time!

Shanghai! Honeysuckle green tea with lemon!

I tried this imp on a rainy morning, which was a perfect setting for this lovely scent. It's a perfect sweet, mellow, cool rainy scent with a few flowers floating about in the puddles. It's got a very "charged" ozoney scent, and it's got a decent throw, and (at least on me) very long lasting--going strong after about 7 hours. Enchanting!

MOXIE! Joseybird recommended it to me last semester when I was working on papers and exams, and pulling several all-nighters in a row. Well I got a decant and it's helping me through my very last set of law school finals (no all nighters this semester, thank heaven). I put it on my palms while I am studying and it helps me concentrate, and I huff it right before my test, and it helps me stay awake. (Seriously, last year before I discovered BPAL I actually fell asleep during a law school final. Don't fall asleep during a final! The end result is bad times!) The Star and 21, with their limey goodness, are also good for concentration. I'd go for anything with vast amounts of citrus. Good luck!